Never mind the church burnings. Throughout the Nineties, Emperor forged the sound that defines symphonic black metal. Guitarists Ihsahn and Samoth reveal the inner workings of Norway’s infamous iconoclasts.

++Each week Cristiano “Pizza” Migliore’s, guitarist for Lacuna Coil, will be checking in with Guitar World with updates from Lacuna Coil’s headlining U.S. tour for their new release, Shallow Life.++

July, Saturday, 11th - Milwaukee, WI After travelling all night I wake up and, slowly, get up and walk to the front lounge. Most people are already up and there’s fresh coffee made! I put some clothes on and have a cup; it definitely helps in waking up. Outside the bus there are already some fans waiting and I sign a few autographs while I walk to the venue. It’s awesome to witness the dedication of our fans. It always amazes me.

The venue is the Rave, we played here many times before but we’re in for a nice surprise: they completely restored it and there are new dressing rooms right by the underground “haunted pool.” Apparently, many years ago, two girls drowned in this pool and it’s been closed ever since. Obviously every band that’s been there has somehow sneakily had the chance to walk into the basement and see it. I must admit that it used to be quite spooky. Now it’s all cleaned up and you can actually walk through the room to go to the stage. But no matter how clean and bright it is now, it still retains its mysterious aura.

We have a meet-and-greet tonight and it’s a pretty quick one. Pre-sales are looking good and when we walk onstage the room is pretty full. The show goes great once again although the sound onstage is a little weird. It doesn’t matter though, people are here to have fun and we do too.

Then I take a nice, hot shower and bring my stuff back to the bus. There are several people waiting there and we hang out with them for a while before it’s finally time to leave. I better go to bed, tomorrow’s a pretty important day: I gotta meet the parents!